December Thoughts

Flash Fiction

December Thoughts

“He has to have a beard! You can’t have Santa without a beard!” ten-year-old Alex said.

“Who says?” nine-year-old Eddie asked? “What if he decided to try shaving it off in the summer?”

“One, he lives in the North Pole, it’s never hot. And two, he’s Santa. Santa always has a beard.”

“So, you say, but have you ever seen the real one?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve seen about seventy-two hundred Santa’s in my life, any one of them could be the real one.

“You keep track of how many you see?”

“I made up that number, but I’ve seen a lot. You have too.

“Me? When?”

“On TV, on shows, on pictures in the stores, actual Santa’s in the stores any one of which could actually be the real Santa…” Alex popped up his fingers as he rattled off ways to see Santa. Then he stuck up his thumb... we just don’t get to know which ones are fake, and which one is the real one…”

Maybe there’s more than one, like twins, triplets…”

“Or hundred-lets…!” Alex said, “That would make more sense!”

“Yes! Maybe they just let us think there’s only one so it’s spookier!”

“Spookier?”

“You know what I mean, every kid wants the real Santa, so if they had a hundred, and made us all think there was only one, we would all think we got the real one.”

“I get it…”

“So, I guess we need to be good, and all that stuff, in case the real Santa knows everything because there could be hundreds of them!”

“Good plan,” said Eddie as they walked out the back door.

Their parents could barely keep quiet they were laughing so hard! They had a very happy, lovely Christmas that year.